Today’s Submission by: Anthony Xerri

1. Recommendation of the Day- Meatloaf-Bat Out of Hell
This is one of my favorite albums of all time.  Written by the musical genius Jim Steinman (writer of “Total Eclipse of the Heart”), every track is a winner.  From the high energy, rock and roll opening track to the prog-ish love ballad at its close, this album is packed with emotion, tunes that you will feel.  A few of the songs can feel like your watching a musical, set in the fifties or something, with horn sections and blues beats almost reminiscent of rockabilly–over-produced rockabilly.  Listen to it from start to finish or it doesn’t have the same effect.

2. Drink Pick of the Day- Assorted White Wines
I usually prefer a good red but recently I’ve stumbled upon a few white wines that I really like.  I know that tastes differ so I’ve offered a few different options.
2005 Windisch Riesling– From the Windisch winery, made in Germany, the best place for wines made with Riesling grapes.  This is a sweet wine, smooth and thick.  It gives off an aroma of tea and citrus fruits, and tastes of tropical fruits.  This wine pairs well with Thai food.  A great buy at $12 a bottle.
Cape May Winery Barrelfermented Chardonnay–Made in the Outer Coastal Plains of New Jersey, this wine is very woody, smelling of smoked oak.  It is a smooth, full-bodied wine that reminded me of scotch whiskey, with hints of citrus.  A good match with grilled chicken or salmon.  Affordable at $20 a bottle.
Bellview Winery Cristallina, Vidal Blanc–Also from the Outer Coastal Plain, This is a very sweet dessert wine.  One of the most perfectly balanced whites I have ever tasted, and pairs well with Crème Brulee or cheesecake.  A delicacy at $30 for a half bottle (375ml).

3. Random Movie Pick of the Day– A Few Good Men
This classic centers around an underdog legal team (Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, and Kevin Pollak) and their battle in a military murder trial, wrought with corruption and deception.  An brilliant drama featuring a star-studded cast including Jack Nicholson, Kevin Bacon, and Kiefer Sutherland.   The ending is dramatic and suspenseful (famous for the “You can’t handle the truth” line).  A must see.

4. Random Quote of the Day: “I ain’t lookin’ to compete with you, beat or cheat or mistreat you, simplify you classify you, deny defy or crucify you.  All I really wanna do, is baby be friends with you.  No I ain’t lookin’ to fight with you, frighten you, uptighten you, drag you down or drain you down, or chain you down or bring you down.  All I really wanna do, is baby be friends with you.”
-Bob Dylan

5. Discussion Topic- Does God exist?  How do you know?

Since those immature years are now behind me, and I am now employed at Brower Commons, I have truly come to enjoy this underappreciated Dining Hall, and I hope for all of the Rutgers population to feel the same way.  The truth is, our Salad Bar and Cereal Bar are far superior to those of any other dining hall.  Additionally, we have vastly more Ice Creams and toppings than any other dining hall.  The one thing that we were lacking in comparison to the others was the availability of pizza everyday–a problem which has by now been remedied.  With this addition, I feel that we have now surpassed the likes of the Busch and Neilson Dining Halls (Tillet never even had a chance).  There are, however, some things about Brower that I feel are misunderstood, causing our patrons unnecessary daily frustration.

First I would like to offer a simple yet useful rule of thumb to keep in mind: Lunch is Left.  That’s right, if you’re looking for hot food, during Breakfast and Dinner take the right ramp, and during Lunch take the left ramp.  This is true on any weekday.  Weekends, of course, it’s Brunch until 3:30 on the right followed by Dinner, also on the right.  Omelets are served on the left until 3:30.

There is one time during each weekday where no food is served on the hot line.  This “Lost Time” between 3:30 and 4:00 is lamented by many, but the options provided during this time have increased greatly over the years.  You have available to you soups, the deli line (featuring the new Turbo Toaster), the top of the line salad bar, and the new pizza bar.  There is also the vast cereal selection and the waffle makers if you’re into breakfast for lunch.

Students are often upset by the realization that something they desire is not apparently available, for example, empty soups, waffle batter or Hot Sauce.  At times like these, weaker willed students give up and complain about how Brower sucks.  Students who choose to take their lives into their own hands will ask a student worker, manager or chef about the availability of what it is they are craving.  As employees of Rutgers University Dining Services, it is our duty, and our pleasure, to serve you.  As the popular saying goes, “You can’t always get what you want, but at Brower you usually can” (Confucius, circa 500 B.C.E.).

Having given you some useful information that I hope will make your Brower experience easier and more enjoyable, I now turn to some things that you can avoid to make the experience more enjoyable for those like myself, whose job it is to ensure that things run smoothly at Brower and that the dining hall meets our standards of cleanliness and comfort.

My first request is that you please do not leave anything on the tables.  I cannot tell you how many times daily we find glasses, plates and entire trays filled with food left behind by students who simply do not feel the need to clean up after themselves.  Yes, it is our job to keep Brower clean.  But just because you know a janitor will clean the bathroom does not mean you should urinate on the floor.

There are some other things that students do, the consequences of which I’m sure they are simply not aware of.  One very common thing is the stuffing of napkins, food, and other garbage into the glasses.  While at first this might seem like a way to minimize mess, this actually makes things much more difficult for the workers in the dish room.  Dirty trays are fed on a conveyor belt.  In this assembly-line-like process, glasses are “caught” and put into a rack which will later be fed through a large dishwasher.  Since a glass filled with napkins, or cupcakes, will not be cleaned effectively by such a process, the line must be stopped while a worker furiously fishes out the debris.  This can cause much stress due to the short tempers and volatile atmosphere present in the dish room.

When placing your tray into the large silver bus trucks, please push your tray all the way towards the back, allowing other students to place their trays with ease.  Also, when given the choice to place your tray in two different trucks, always choose the truck that is more full (Please avoid putting your tray on the very bottom rack, as this often causes trays to fall out during transit).  This will be greatly appreciated by the student workers who you see consolidating two half full trucks before moving one of them.

My final request is that you PLEASE do not break the salt and pepper shakers.  This pointless destruction occurs far too often, creating an unnecessary mess.  It is not that much fun to leave a pile of salt on your table.  Please think about the people, like me, who work at Brower and have to clean up after you.

In Thursday’s Targum, Ysabel Gonzalez wrote an opinions article entitled Cracks in Another Red Tape System (found here). In this article Ms. Gonzalez points out the lack of personal attention given to students here at Rutgers, as well as in institutions for higher education in general. She claims that professors and the University at large are not interested in individual students and their needs, but rather in the statistics which represent them. She believes that professors need to take more of an initiative to connect with students on a personal level, proposing the addition of multiple Teachers’ Assistants in classes to make sure each student understands the material. She uses her own experience of dropping out for a few years and having it go unnoticed as an example of the lack of personal attention given to students.

While almost everyone here at Rutgers is going to have difficulty denying the fact that in many respects we are just another number, I have to say that Ms. Gonzalez is hoping for a little too much. This is college. For many of us, it’s the last step before “the real world.” It is basically the school’s intention, if not explicitly its job, to provide us with the skills we will need to succeed in that world. One of those skills is the ability to take initiative. No one is going to be looking to coddle you through your daily life (and if they are, you’re probably going to have to pay them for it). Just as resources are available in the real world if you seek them out, there are plenty of assets available here at Rutgers. You cannot simply expect them to find you. The responsibility is on you, the student, to reach out to your professors. In my experience, the majority of them are happy to chat about subjects above and beyond the class material; but you cannot expect them to seek you out amongst a class of twenty or fifty, let alone hundreds of other students, each with as much of a sense of entitlement as you have. In that respect, you are just another number. But get used to it—once you shake free of your RUID, you’ll find that you are left in an even larger pool of those in the social security system. Try to escape that number.

In her article, Gonzalez says, “Students want to be here and want to learn! Like you [professors], we have a thirst to acquire expertise.” If you have ever been to a class here at Rutgers, particularly a large lecture where a student can easily slip under the radar, you will notice that not everyone has the zeal for learning which Gonzalez describes. There is a staggering amount of students who spend their class time doing anything but paying attention. Between sleeping, completing other assignments, texting, Facebook, and all the other distractions with which we provide ourselves as technology advances, not a very large percentage of students devote their full attention to the class at hand. I ask you Ms. Gonzalez, should professors really spend their time trying to connect with students who just aren’t interested? One should not expect to get anything more out of schooling than the effort one puts into it.

With the growing number of students, and shrinking amount of funding, providing an individualized education to each student becomes increasingly difficult. It would be a logistical impossibility to ensure that each student is keeping up with the material. Rutgers is faced with the task of providing an education to a large number of students. Unfortunately, they cannot sacrifice the learning of the group to check with the individuals who are struggling. The reality is that there are some people who aren’t cut out for college. Dropouts inevitably occur. A degree is supposed to be a distinction, acknowledging a student’s completion of a difficult program. If everyone had a degree it would be meaningless. So if the road to earning one is a little changeling you may have to accept your responsibility and put some effort into it. Don’t blame your failures or shortcomings on the educational system.

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In My Image

Last week Robert Tarantino wrote an article about the widespread conversion to digital music and the resultant poor sound quality. Reading his article, I was inspired to address some of the more cultural (and less technical) consequences of this popular technology. While I cannot deny the convenience of having every song you could ever want to listen to in the palm of your hand, I do feel that the current trend in music distribution takes away from the integrity of the medium, thereby encouraging the decreases in music quality that we have been experiencing over the last few decades.

First of all, as we try to make audio smaller and smaller so we can carry an entire library in our pockets, we lose the physical aspect of music. In addition to the potential disappearance of actual recorded music, a bleak future suggested by Tarantino, we are eroding the artist’s ability to express himself. Albums used to consist of more than just music. Bands would work to convey their concept via album jackets, cover art and inserts. The large packaging allowed for additional goodies and novelties. For example, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon came with stickers and posters including pictures of the band. The cover of the Rolling Stones’ album Sticky Fingers consisted of a picture of a tight pair of blue jeans, complete with a working zipper to reveal a man wearing tighty- whities. The Velvet Underground and Nico had a banana on the cover which could actually be peeled to reveal a pink skinned banana underneath. The Beatles’ Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band came with a page of cutouts including badges, a picture of the band, and a moustache. Led Zeppelin III had a wheel beneath the cover that could be rotated to show different pictures through holes on the front—a different cover every time. Their untitled fourth album contained the now famed picture of “The Hermit” on the inside of the Gatefold jacket, and the lyrics to “Stairway to Heaven” were printed on the inner sleeve of the album itself. These are just a few examples of the work that would go into the production of an album and the art that was intended to be taken in conjunction with the music it contained. Although some of these works were able to translate in limited form to Compact Disc booklets, they are completely lost when you download a song or album from iTunes. If you want the album cover you have to settle for a small thumbnail sized picture in the corner of your screen.

The new technology has furthered a detrimental phenomenon that is sweeping both current and older generations alike; I call it “Musical ADD”. With vast amounts of music available at your fingertips, it seems people are losing the ability to sit through a song (let alone an entire album) without hitting the [NEXT] button. People seem to forget that (with the exception of singles) songs are released as part of an album, and in many cases are intended to be listened to in that way. To paraphrase Robert Plant, an album is the true representation of a group’s work. A song is different out of the context of the collection for which it is created. Listening to a track from The Who’s album Tommy without hearing the rest of the album would leave you wondering what the hell they were talking about. The same is true for The Who Sell Out, an album meant to simulate a radio broadcast. Listening to one track is the equivalent to watching one scene from a movie; you could get a general idea for whether the scene is well done, and for some of the emotion it portrays, but you would have no clue as to where this emotion is coming from, or how it relates to the rest of the movie, making your judgment of it rather parochial and ignorant.

It’s true that not all releases are concept albums, but even an album that is simply a group of songs that a band recorded during a certain time period works to give you an idea of their sound at the time. This can be juxtaposed to earlier and later albums to help paint a picture of how a band’s ideas, views and sounds change over the course of their career. As a fan of bands like Yes, The Beatles, and Pink Floyd, I fear that the concept album is becoming a thing of the past. When, regardless of their release, individual songs can be purchased on iTunes, there is no incentive for a group to create anything more than catchy singles; one good song is all that is needed on an album. And for those who choose to maintain artistic integrity and create themed albums, their work will go unappreciated and uncompensated as e-consumers pick it apart like vultures.

The release of a new album used to be an event worth waiting for. You would call up your friend and say “I just got the new so-and-so album. You wanna come over and listen to it?” It seems that music is fading into the background. Instead of being something you sit down for, our music is forced to be just another small component of the milieu that surrounds us as we run our daily rat race. Although, much of today’s music lacks intricacies (as alluded to in the comment section of Tarantino’s article) and can serve as a backdrop to whatever tasks with which we choose to complicate our lives, I maintain that any music worth listening to is worth sitting down with and really listening to. Although I am not enough of an elitist to say that there is one right way to enjoy music, I do believe that the highest level of appreciation can be gained by devoting all of your attention to it and allowing it to pervade your consciousness. This is not something I would like to do with a song like “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” but try it with the Yes albums Fragile or Close to the Edge. Music like this can transport you to another world, rather than just give you some clever words that rhyme with “Ho.”

“Let the music be your master. Will you heed the master’s call?”

-Led Zeppelin

West Virginia University 12/2/06: Mostly sober, red shirts discretely hidden under our hoodies, I felt this was the perfect disguise in the frigid night air; still we found ourselves surrounded by chants of “Fuck New Jersey!” Moments later, as we don our noble garbs in the befitting manner, these chants and profane remarks condemning the state of my birth and residency were aimed directly at us. What do these gas-pumping hicks know anyway? Tough loss that night, but if Townsend didn’t drop that pass in the Fourth, we may not have escaped Morgantown with our lives.

University of Connecticut 11/3/07: Red shirts worn proudly, in a certain altered state that makes being on the receiving end of yelling and insults even less enjoyable, yet still they fly: “Jersey Sucks!”

“Well,” I thought to myself, “I guess I don’t really have a frame of reference, but it seems alright to me.” Not in the mood to fight back, my companion and I find our way to our seats in the Rutgers section, which would soon be infiltrated by some Connecticut fans with acid tongues. Don’t remember much about the game besides the colors, but judging from the energy emitted by the differently intoxicated members of my party it didn’t look good for old Rutgers.

With the exception of Syracuse, (whose fans were very polite and friendly) anytime I’ve ventured to a Rutgers football game in an enemy stadium, I’ve found myself subject to verbal berating not only for the school I came to support, but for the state in which I lived. In fact, it seems that whenever I meet someone from out of state they have a less than favorable attitude towards New Jersey. I was at first puzzled by this widespread hatred. After all, I’ve lived in New Jersey my entire life and have never had a problem with it; in fact, like everything else I was born into (religion, gender, nationality) I had some innate sense of pride about it. However, I’ve been able to find a few key reasons (based mostly on the jokes and insults I’ve heard) for why the Jersey reputation follows me wherever I go.

The Smell: To paraphrase the comedy team Otto and George, when you fart in Jersey you roll the windows up. This reputation of ours has earned us many unfavorable nicknames, including the Armpit of America. Those of us who live in the more rural areas may find this accusation unfounded. But we must realize that we do not put our best foot forward. Just about anyone from out of state who drives through Jersey will wind up on the New Jersey Turnpike. This isn’t exactly a red carpet of a road. As you get a little north of Johnsonville, even Jersey natives must acknowledge the odor that is one of the many gifts of industrialization. Although this is not representative of the entire state (unless I’ve just grown accustomed to it) it is not hard to understand how we have earned such a reputation.

The Corruption: Although numerous states throughout the country have been riddled with political scandals, New Jersey has long been near the top of the list. I was actually a little surprised that a 2008 New York Times article placed us as low as number 8 in terms of convicted public officials between 1998 and 2007 (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/14/weekinreview/14marsh.html). Others would probably be equally as surprised to hear this statistic. According to a poll by twiigs.com, an online polling site, New Jersey was rated the third most corrupt state behind Illinois and Louisiana. We have definitely had our share of public scandals, particularly ones that would cause us to take some ridicule from other states. Who could forget the public “coming out” of Governor McGreevy? I’m not sure we’ll ever live that one down.

Our Monopoly on a Certain Demographic: Everyone thinks that if you’re from New Jersey you’re a fist-pumpin’, Jager-lovin’ Guido. It’s not hard to see where this one comes from. If you’re from out of state and you try to hit the popular bars, you will probably find at least one place where every guy is wearing a polo shirt and a blowout hairdo. It took a while for it to dawn on me that this wasn’t a phenomena shared by every state in the Union. I guess being so close to New York makes us a breeding ground for the Brooklyn-Italian wannabees. But not everyone from Jersey fits into this category.

The Cost: This is one that doesn’t get talked about by people outside of Jersey, but I threw it in anyway because it bothers me. The cost of living in New Jersey is very high. According to a 2005 report from the National Low Income Housing Commission (NLIHC), New Jersey is the fourth most expensive state for renters. Of course these statistics are from before the housing crisis, but I doubt that Jersey prices would have changed dramatically relative to other states. Friends of mine from out of state still report much lower renting prices than I have paid in New Jersey. I realize that college towns are not really an accurate sample, but you get the idea. But to be fair, these prices aren’t just arbitrarily decided. There is obviously a high demand to live in New Jersey, which would indicate that the pros outweigh the cons. We have some fine school systems, full service gas stations, and right turns on red unless otherwise posted.

Whether deserved or not, these are what I can see to be some of the main reasons that New Jersey is the brunt of so many jokes. A lot of this, as seems to be indicated, is based on stereotypes made by those who haven’t gotten the full Jersey experience. Not all of Jersey smells, and not everyone’s a Guido. Alright, I’m going to go bench-press before my boys come over for JAGAH-BOMBS!